


Nine Out Of Ten

by miipan



Category: Keyakizaka46 (Band)
Genre: F/F, but im still posting it, hooray and get ready for badly spaced out updates, that will be anything but frequent, this is a self indulgent mess that i am hardly proud of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-06-16 02:51:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15427410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miipan/pseuds/miipan
Summary: It’s a game, Watanabe Rika reminds herself, and in a game, there is a winner (aka Moriya Akane) and a loser (aka Oda Nana). Rika has never been either of these things, because she is neutral; a non-playable character.Actually, she's just a detective. A really bad one, too. But with the disappearance of her best friend, Nagasawa Nanako, Berika toughens up and manages to utter viable sentences of varying lengths (six to ten words) at staff meetings while trying to contribute scarcely to the case.Progress, as Yuuka would say.





	1. Uncover

**Author's Note:**

> kazenifukaretemo inspired? i feel like writing something light-hearted and fun with the vibe of that song
> 
> i dub this, keyaki99

From: Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

To: Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >

CC: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >, Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >

Subject: Infringement of precinct rules

 

Pretty sure Rika just spilled coffee all over the break room floor, covered her mouth in lacklustre disgust and walked away

 

Oda Nana (Sergeant)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >

To: Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

CC: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >,  Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

what does infringment and lackluster mean? :/

 

Watanabe Rika (Inspector)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From: Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

To: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >

CC: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >, Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

Rika... you READ my email with your own two EYES and still can't spell it

 

Oda Nana (Sergeant)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >

To: Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

CC: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >,  Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

?

 

Watanabe Rika (Inspector)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From: Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

To: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >

CC: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >, Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

...Nen, Yuuka, one of you help me 

 

Oda Nana (Sergeant)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From: Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn > 

To: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >, Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

CC: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

Please, Sergeant, Inspector, I didn't give myself my well-deserved and needed break to come back to such a futile mailing argument. In the future, don't crowd my inbox with messages akin to this ever again.

Regarding this infringement, this is why we have janitorial staff, Dani. Otherwise, if Rika had just left it there and someone had got into an accident due to the spillage, that would be a different matter.

I'm not forgetting you, Rika. Just... don't do it again. Also, while you're finally checking your messages, please report to Nagasawa-san and Sato-san regarding the Tokyo bar case earlier this week. Not that I'm expecting much evidence to have come from you, but forensics need some help with identification.

This is why I make all my official e-mails without the option to reply... and honestly, Dani, I'm in my office, you could've just talked to me in private. Also, please avoid using 'nen' in official e-mails, it's not professional.

Anyways, this is no infringement. Please refrain from messaging me further, thank you.

 

Sugai Yuuka (Captain)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >

To: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >, Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >, Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

why would you add me to this mailing list when yuuka responds to emails likes its the key to a stable lifeline

 

Moriya Akane (Vice-Captain)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From: Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >

To: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >

CC: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >, Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

I'm simply fulfilling my duties and tasks successfully, Akane.

Now, please, relate.

 

Sugai Yuuka (Captain)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From:  Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >

To: Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >

CC: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >, Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

Fuck u

 

Moriya Akane (Vice-Captain)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From: Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >

To: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >

CC: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >, Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

Fuck you, too.

 

Sugai Yuuka (Captain)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

From:  Oda Nana < dani@gov.jpn >

To: Moriya Akane < M_Akane@gov.jpn >, Sugai Yuuka < sugai_yuuka@gov.jpn >

CC: Watanabe Rika < watanape@gov.jpn >

Subject: Re: Infringement of precinct rules

 

what did I just witness

was i supposed to see this

remove me from this mailing list 

 

Oda Nana (Sergeant)

Sakamichi Metropolitan Police Force

 

Oda Nana closes her e-mail tab abruptly, leaning back in her chair with a dissatisfied look. Perhaps she wasn't meant to be an accomplice of making the Captains spit vulgarity at each other, but inside it gave her a hearty laugh that her exterior would cower to show, because she was one-hundred percent sure Yuuka's eyeing her through her office blinds. That, or their given government e-mails have scarred her forever and made her partially delusional to the presence of Captain Sugai.

She glances over Rika, who currently is preoccupied on her break with a cup full of shaved ice, and to her left, the empty desk of Nagasawa Nanako. The somewhat skilled forensics detective had been absent for nearly a week, and it was always excused with 'personal' reasons. (Dani was almost always jealous, letting herself believe that the burial of a childhood toy ripped apart by her neighbourhood dogs pertained to an authorised absence and at least a week of mourning, which - in her defence - did happen. It just didn't seem serious.)

Just at that moment, when Naako's snack stash was about to be invaded by a certain Oda Nana, Akane approaches Berika and the latter feels herself freeze up and her heart drop down to her diaphragm. Fortunately, Akane doesn't have anything subtly insulting to say and so she's safe from hearing Rika get reprimanded for at least a day before the cycle continues.

"Hm, say," the vice-captain starts, letting herself sit on Berika's desk, "would you give this to Yuuka?"

Rika places her shaved ice down promptly, staring at the item like a deer in front of headlights. "What is it?" she stares blankly, pinching the item between two fingers and swinging it gently like a child and spaghetti. Akane wraps her hand around Rika's, stopping her in her tracks before inevitable collateral damage.

"It's her bracelet she's been looking for, y'know the one that's been lost for weeks? I stumbled upon it when in the evidence room," Akane starts off normally, before she trails off in a quieter voice, "say you found it yourself, okay?"

Dani suppresses the urge to leap out of her seat with her wide eyes and completely confused state, but she doesn't and she watches quietly as Rika agrees and Akane is left relieved and somewhat happy (with herself, probably). She sees Yuuka hug Rika, who is a robotic yet still responding human through the blinds. It's the first time she's ever seen Yuuka  _that_ happy, and it makes her smile just by spectating the scene. She releases the hug from Rika, who leaves the room with the face she went in with.

Akane saw too, and when Rika leaves, she gives a satisfied yet lopsided smile, but also regretful. Her eyes formed half-moons throughout the whole thing, and her smile fluctuated between a stern, straight line and her usual one, as if she was conflicted between what to do. Nevertheless, Oda Nana shouldn't let this whole 'deeper meaning' sink in too deep. After all, their relationship had always been strictly professional, and they had always acted that way around each other. Akane looking unusually sulky and nostalgic (Oda may be exaggerating here), doesn't mean anything. They're friends. _Sort of._

Akane just wanted to make Rika look like less of an idiot by doing it - right? 

In that case, it should've been herself. (That's what she thinks, anyway.) 

"Forget it," she says to herself. It was better for her to get out of the affairs and discord between the two captains, especially after the tantalising e-mail war they had in which Oda regrets ever seeing, or even bringing up Rika spilling half a jug of coffee on the floor as a joke that she thought wouldn't be taken seriously. She scrunches up a paper ball and throws it directly on Berika's head, "hey, pe~,"

Now was a good time to address Naako's absence, since she promised her to get coffee tomorrow morning and there's still no sign or contact  since a week ago. Rika doesn't find it fishy, but that's because she probably doesn't notice these things as well as Dani does, or, it's just not in her absolutely tiny repertoire of skills that consist of somehow being a good extractor of info when it comes to interrogation, and well, that's about it. Watanabe Rika was the precincts resident airhead, with almost no one to rival her stupidity. Yuuka would be lying if she said she doesn't know how she became a detective, but she's here now, and somehow being useful.

 

Oda Nana throws another paper ball at her head having not garnered the attention of the older girl the first time. Rika turns around, with furrowed eyebrows in response.

"Sorry, pe, I just wanted to ask... you haven't seen Naako lately, have you?"

"Oh, I saw her a few minutes ago," Oda lets Rika explain herself but she rids herself of the perplexed expression dominating her face right now. Rika pulls up a photo of Naako she saw on her timeline, and finishes with a measly, "see."

She could feel a genuine slap in the face from her response. "In  _real life,"_ she retorts bluntly with expectant eyes.

Rika frowns, contemplates for a few seconds before putting her phone back onto the desk. She shakes her head reluctantly, as if she had just come to the realisation. "No, then," Rika lets it sink in before staring at Oda Nana, currently in the same position as she tries to fill in for the silence the older girl made as she just comes to terms with the fact that Nagasawa Nanako, is indeed, missing, and that is, indeed, her best friend, "where could she have gone?"

Fuyuka passes by suddenly, and drops off a pile of paperwork that Rika locks her eyes on before Oda calls her back to her attention. Not that this disappearance would cause chaos, but it would cause chaos and more. Their conversation quietens, and to their absolute luck, it just gets that little busier. Ozeki passes by looking half-dead with a handful of folders in her grasp, but she doesn't notice what they're talking about.

Out of nowhere, the junior squad passes by too; Kumi, Kyoko, Mirei... but they're gone by so quick there wasn't a chance for them to listen in or observe Rika's obviously suspicious actions and questionable expression having to hide the fact she didn't get told something incredibly important. (Honestly, it looked more scary than an attempt to conceal something.)

So, really, Rika and Oda are just getting luck today.

Rika turns around fully now, fully immersed in the not-yet-official case. They both stare at her desk, their minds empty. Not only does Dani feel the urge to solve the overwhelmingly intriguing case of Akane and Yuuka, but to also go with Rika - this is to be decided - to find the whereabouts of their missing person. Actually, the whole precinct should get involved, they're all friends with Naako anyway, and she had always been vital to their cases.

(And yes, she admits, she is more curious about it more than the disappearance of Naako, a little guilt does subside in her, but there's just something that will give Oda Nana a definite case solved than the Where Did Naako Disappear mellarky. No, she's not doing it because she likes the satisfaction of finally being responsible of solving a case. Pft... well... of course not.)

"We have to find her, you know," for the first time in possibly ever, Rika leans over her desk with absolute seriousness that Oda nods almost immediately. After all, Rika had never looked this different, she was either laughing or had a blank expression, but never this. It had always surprised other people in the precinct when Rika displayed something relatively human-like. So, Oda counted it as something she had to do, even if her police record doesn't account to much to her chance of actually solving this case.

(Determination got her through her previous achievements within the precinct, and it will here.)

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ignore any mistakes i literally wrote it and didnt bother to proofread


	2. Sort of, Maybe, Not Really

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nothing really plot changing  
> just more brooklyn99-esque scenes that i loved writing
> 
> also wow i updated

Recently, Oda’s days always start off with the refusal of breakfast, denial of sleeping too late and a  _very_ aggressive declaration that she will  _not_ succumb to the influx of zombie comments that are inevitable with her lack of sleep. That, or she doesn’t come into work at all. Nanako’s disappearance has been on her mind, and she’s spent a good three days moping about it.

(A scarily transparent statement, Oda likes to bluff and mention this but she’s only had one day off, and with  _no_ thanks to her pride of perfect attendance that sent half the precinct away with the flu.)

 **Pe~ sent you a message** appears on her screen, making her jolt out of the silence of her empty room. The loud ding makes her wonder if she’s late, but curiosity kills the cat more often than Oda who bothers everyone to keep chats alive. (No one does, and she’s wondering if it’s because everyone’s trying to ignore her messages.)

When she opens it, she doesn’t expect anything less from Watanabe Rika.

_> they want u to come_

There is perhaps one recipe to replicate a Rika message, and it’s the perfect balance of inexactness and the compulsion to make a person send a virtual slap across the face, but instead it’s suppressed because it’s Rika.

She’s that sort of person.

Oda is flustered for a whole minute from the ambiguity of the message, but decides to ignore having given up with Berika’s antics which is, quite literally, just her normal self. Sometimes, she couldn’t believe Rika was in fact, a detective with deducing abilities more suited than you would think. Of course, her personality and attitude make up for the fact that she’s not really detective-like. Easily manipulated, airhead and kind of  _eerily beautiful_ , but can still solve a case.

She may possess little to no brain cells, but she is hard to decipher for someone who doesn’t have a phone password because she wouldn’t remember it. Remincising, or well, _mockingly remembering_ Rika’s oddities is a hobby of hers, but she wants to keep her laughs at a minimum. Would ruin her image.

Nevertheless, she has some questions. Questions of such caliber, such as:  _‘go where?’_ , questions of which Rika lacks the intellectual needs and basic understanding of texting to answer it, and Oda is sure of it unless someone directly tells her to.

Five minutes later, she almost falls off her bed.

_> the station btw_

_> sry_

Oda launches herself off the bed, responding to Rika promptly.

_omw, meet in the staff room so you can tell me who are ‘they’? <_

She figures it’s too much to ask for in a sentence so it turns into a measly, yet satisfiable response.

_omw, pe~ <_

Around lunch, Oda makes her way her way towards the precinct, lugging around her packed lunch which is really just an instant noodle pot she found in the cupboard and half of Akane’s ‘nutritious, additive-free’ drink she got for her birthday. (Honestly, she’s not sure if it’s gone off yet.) The winter in Tokyo was always cold, disturbingly cold, so it was more reason for Oda  _not_  to go into work that day, yet Rika was the one mindlessly asking her to come in for who knows what reason.

When she gets in the elevator to her precinct’s floor, she’s greeted by Fuyuka, and Oda wants to turn around and leave right that second. Fuyuka’s mouth opens, and a sigh escapes. Saito Fuyuka - has worked here longer than anyone else as a chief detective. Oda likes to think she’s committed to her job, but she’s mostly in it because her job doesn’t require much paperwork, and if she ever was to become captain, she’d have a lot more than paperwork on her plate.

“Sorry,” she says quietly, handing over Oda’s missed paperwork like a high schooler who couldn’t be bothered to hand in homework, and she could relate, because she  _was_ that high schooler. Oda forces out a cheap smile, raising a hand when Fuyuka starts letting the damage sink in by walking away.

“Wait - where was Watanabe to handle all of this?”

“Where do you think?” Fuyuka steps away to reveal Rika unsurprisingly gnawing away at shaved ice, at least, Oda found reassurance that she was doing something productive, considering the documents were on her desk and the case file was opened on her monitor. She was hoping she was actually doing it, though.

Fuyuka leaves before she can curse at her. There should be a cry, a sob, a tear-jerking moment that is too movie-esque, highlighting this sorrowful moment in Oda’s life. When she approaches Rika, there’s something in her that wants to scream out of frustration, but she doesn’t.

“I think I may as well faint,” Oda whispers to herself, granting a not-so justified still-to-be-determined day off because of Rika. It became clear then that Rika was looking at a case that was solved three weeks ago, looking at it like she was studying an artefact, as if suddenly that tiny brain of hers would solve a solved case. Her stupidity was tolerable, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. She had definitely contracted some sort of illness if her head was pounding.

That, or Rika just gives her a headache. ‘ _How dramatic,_ ’ Akane would say, as ironic as it was.

“What are you doing, Pe-chan?” she manages to say through gritted teeth, barely holding back. Devil-Oda on her left shoulder was having a field day, even if Oda wasn’t exactly declining the volcanic spew of malicious intentions. If she wasn’t a detective and wholly trusted to abide by the law, Watanabe Rika would be the main victim in a homicide.

“Oh, Dani?” Rika stands up, placing her bowl down before hugging her. “I missed you, I thought you died, you know.”

“You idiot—,” Oda suppresses the urge to whack an imaginary inflatable hammer across Rika’s head aka to be substituted by her hand, “Why would I be dead, you idiot—shouldn’t you be focusing on Naako?” Oda trails off at the end, making sure no one could hear.

“Oh, that’s right, Naako-chan. I told Moriya to run a check on her car, and…” Rika preses a few buttons on her computer that Oda has no idea how exactly her movements akin to smashing your hand against a keyboard would give her an answer, but it does, “...apparently it’s on the other side of the city.”

“On the other side of the city, but she doesn’t live there?” Oda revels in the information for a dreamy split second, crashing down on her chair soon after, “You-you told Moriya?!”

The precinct falls silent momentarily, eyes staring at Oda like a madman, before she rifles up and apologises, as equally as crazy. There’s a cheap smile to Kobayashi, who glares at her in disgust. Oda launches her swivel chair to Rika after that terribly awkward encounter, pouring her shaved ice into the bin next to her as she speaks.

“Why did you tell Moriya?”

Rika hums, her head tilting, “Because she knew.”

 

 

 

 

Akane was only here because Yuuka requested she lay out the file for the Tokyo bar case, since the leads had been going deeper and deeper. Instead, however, it turned more into a confrontational subtle insult fest.

“That’s an awful smell, by the way.”

Akane mentions, adjusting herself to what might as well be a stone chair and her nose to the strong smell of black coffee. As observant as she is, she also hates the sight of Yuuka’s flashy cop awards and shelves of books (that to be fair, she probably has read) conveniently taking up half the room’s space. A forced intellectual, is what she deduces. Then the reality hits.

“Then just leave if you don’t like it, Moriya. I don’t you see why you’re still here.”

Akane doesn’t like being subject of a mockery, supposing Yuuka has the gall to speak like that to a beautiful, witty, every synonym of a perfect person—such as herself. She could say “thank you” and sound demeaning, and it’s what annoys her the most.

“Are you the queen?” Akane asks out of the blue, placing her hands on the desk curiously.

“Excuse me?”

“Well, it’s just that you’re very formal, and that’s the first thing that came to mind. So are you? Secretly?”

“No."

Akane’s face gradually gets closer with every moment passing, until she sinks back into her seat.

“Is that all I get?”

“Yes,” Yuuka dryly responds, lifting her head up when the sound of the door opening doesn’t come yet by her calculations, “Why aren’t you gone yet?”

What seems like a neverending eternity, passes, with Akane holding her phone up ominously. Yuuka looks at her phone twice before giving in to Akane’s gaze, turning it over with the tiny bit of pride she had left.

_> Moriya_

_this is a boring meeting_

In an alternate universe, Yuuka would be slamming the phone down hard enough that the desk splits in two and Akane, out of fear, lets herself out of the room (which would be a first and a miracle simultaneously). But unfortunately, it ceases to exist, and Yuuka is stuck living in a universe where keeping her composure is the only thing she has.

“Leave, Moriya.”

To add onto the already salted surface, Akane screeches her chair on the floor, Yuuka restraining any flinch coming to her senses. To describe it to an outsider, it looked like two toddlers having an argument over a toy that sparked out of  _completely_ nowhere.

When Akane leaves the room, there’s another message.

_> also_

_> ill send u the files because this is work, yuuka_

_> if u couldnt tell_

Yuuka scoffs.

It’s half-disgust, half-surprise, but mostly a mixture of disbelief that caters for another reason to despise working with her. Which really wasn’t a surprise to anyone.

_> look over them (angry emoji) (angry emoji) (angry emoji) (angry emoji) (angry emoji)_

_Yuuka <_

_Shut up and work, stupid._

 

 

 

 

How a briefing of the recent discovery they made turned into this, Oda has no clue. All she remembers is Rika accidentally throwing her bento down the chute (however that happened) and the world suddenly spiralling into hell, not even that far past lunch time.

“Rika…” Oda says abashedly but with urgency. Soon enough affectionate urgency turns into a matter of life or death, and Oda couldn't be less surprised. The position Rika's in right now makes even self-proclaimed highly tolerant Oda cower and rush to hide, because Rika is literally stuck halfway through the trash chute. Now how that occurred is a story in another complaint e-mail.

Rika's legs wave around, kicking Oda in the shin accidentally. Of course, Rika doesn't take notice and the shrill voice of the older detective makes Oda flinch. "I'm literally stuck, Dani!"

"I am  _well_  aware of that!" Oda responds through gritted teeth, holding in the pain familiar to that of a hip and the corner of a table. "Just, just - god damnit, Watanabe." Oda prepares herself for the worst of two scenarios, Rika lands face first on the floor when her legs get tugged beyond belief, or Oda pushes her further down the chute so she ends up at the bottom. She's thankful that the upper floors are practically a ghost-town (most of the workers are probably allergic to offices and paperwork which is situated on this exact floor). Rika would never succeed being a spy, not that Oda thinks she has the minds or physicals to go through it. The qualifications are simple. They need to be very good with foreign languages, very “personable,” (the kind of individual whom people feel comfortable talking to) and very observant. None of which are applicable to Rika.

Oda on the other hand - she has the spirit. That's what matters. (And what she keeps telling herself.)

She opts for the safer, less obvious route. She's sure someone would find Rika lifeless on a pile of trash and think she was a corpse from the probable unresponsiveness, and well, Oda couldn't afford another 'emergency meeting' in which they'd always discuss whether or not to release Rika from the precinct. If anything, Rika was admirable, she really  _didn't_ care about what people thought. Oda tugs on Rika's legs which earns her a not-so deserved scream. She's also very sure Rika's legs weren't that long, because she felt like she was tugging for eternity. Nevertheless, they can get back onto the Nanako case and not cause any stir for the precinct.

Berika stands up eerily, brushing herself off with little eagerness. "Well that hurt."

"Of course it did, you were lodged down a metal chute intended for garbage because you threw away your bento that had your chopsticks in and you wanted to get them back."

"You say it as if it wasn't a good thing to do. You can't waste chopsticks."

Oda's blown away - actually - more than blown away at Rika's reasoning. Watanabe was innocent, but it was an innocent that made you want to wholeheartedly ask if Rika was okay. Oda responds after a few seconds, "Because it is a _completely_  illogical thing to do, they were  _disposable_."

"Why are you talking about igloos? I knew I should've saved my chopsticks."

Rika taps her temple as if to suggest any sort of intelligence came out of that sentence, walking out the door proudly. Oda is left dumbfounded momentarily, before chasing after Rika to save her pride.

 

 

 

 

Rika returns to the main floor partly dishevelled, partly looking like she always does. Oda tries her best to walk in front of her and spew useless sentences as colleagues pass by with equally as disturbing looks, but then again, it was Rika, they wouldn't have thought it to be much of a fuss. Today was the day that the precinct would have a staff training after work, which crosses out any time put towards discreetly finding Nanako's whereabouts. 

Oda sits down at her desk, contemplating. "Pe, don't you think we could find out what Naako could've been doing before she disappeared? Like - we could talk - well,  _I_ could talk to people tonight, and if they ask about her, I can just say she's been off-sick, like what the staff-board has her down for. And we can get more on that whole car debacle."

Rika nods, agreeing almost instantly. There's a silence before she says anything else. "I miss Naako, she used to call me Pe."

"Because that's  _literally_ what everyone calls you."

Before Oda has her second breakdown of the day, she leaves Rika to do her paperwork and catches up to Yone passing by. The forensic detective flinches before drooping her demeanour at the sight of Oda. Yone was the smartest of the precinct by far, having received a lot of offers to leave the Sakamichi police force and go work for the FBI, but of course there's a little bit of dumbass in everyone. Oda never understood why she never took the chance, but she went with it, the precinct had a very good reputation for their cases because of it.

"What do you want, Oda?" Yone says lazily, as if she was already expecting the worse. Oda knew Yone was incredibly busy, she'd pass by her desk more often than anyone else carrying different things every time, but it figures, with Nanako gone she has double the work to do along with her own personal research. She's pleasantly surprised at how Yone could even juggle two major things such as those, but Oda herself juggles babysitting Rika and being a competent detective simultaneously, which is already a hard feat to overcome.

"Well, it's not like Watanabe definitely forgot to ask, but did you catch up with the downtown bar case? Sugai asked her to, and-"

"She never got to it. I know how these things end," Yone says calmly, handing Oda a folder from the dozens in her grasp. Amazingly, she knew exactly which Watanabe was in question. The junior squad Watanabe Miho, far more refined, and head detective Watanabe Risa, who wouldn't risk having an image such as Rika's connected to her, were definitely not the one being described, "Luckily Shiori caught up with Habu and Koike who were on the scene that night. The appropriate files are in the folder, you can come to me if you have anything else on the evidence Koike mentioned. It would be really helpful, things don't seem to be going smoothly."

"Sure thing, has - has Nagasawa-san been working on this case too?"

"Not really. She sent me a message not long ago saying that she needed to go somewhere in Tokyo, and she said it was important. Now Nanako's on sick-leave, it isn't helping much, so there's little she could contribute before she left; in fact, her folders have been left for collection a while ago, I just assumed you and Rika were busy. Shiori is stressing and I can't deal with that in a lab, so I could really use the free space."

_Now we really need to ask everyone if they heard from Naako._

"Got it, doc."

 

When Oda's walking back proudly with a bit of new information, she stops in her tracks. She really shouldn't have, because her following words just reinforced the rumours going round in the offices that Oda had an imaginary friend, which didn't seem all that unlikely considering how much she talks to herself. 

"What the hell did Berika drag me to work for today? Who needs to see me in the staff-room?! What does Akane know?!"

 

And that begins Oda's roadrunner-esque pursuit of Rika around the precinct, which leads to more mess (not surprising) than anything productive happening.


End file.
